Today the name probably means nothing to newer and younger residents of Elora, but those whose memory reaches back 20 years will recall the name Jack MacDonald.
The businessman and investor, who has family ties to Elora, has died in his hometown of Seattle, Washington at the age of 98.
He was born in British Columbia, where his grandfather had moved after operating a planing mill in Elora during the 1890s. The family later moved to Seattle, when MacDonald was three.
MacDonald’s father prospered in the meat packing business in Seattle.
Jack MacDonald attended the University of Washington, and graduated from the law school there in 1940. He served in the American armed forces during the Second World War, and had a distinguished record of bravery and endurance. Typical of his modesty, he was reluctant to talk about his experiences in war.
He spent the bulk of his career as a lawyer employed by the American Veterans Administration. He lived very modestly, and devoted most of his spare time to studying the stock market. He invested cautiously and modestly over the decades, beginning with funds he inherited from his father.
As his investment portfolio grew, he gained a reputation for extreme frugality. MacDonald scoured Newspapers for sales and bargains, and clipped coupons incessantly. Stories of his bargain hunting circulated among his acquaintances. He once was reputed to have found a great bargain on frozen orange juice. He bought so much that he had to buy a new freezer to store his immense purchase.
In middle age, though well-to-do and holding a good job, he always took the bus rather than taxis, and invariably wore old clothes. His sweaters often had holes in them. He preferred to be regarded as the most ordinary of men, unnoticed by the public.
MacDonald did not marry until later in life. In 1971, at the age of 56, he married a widow, Mary Katherine Moore, who had two grown children. Vivacious and gregarious, Mary helped pull Jack out of his shell. He became more social, and the couple enjoyed travelling, something MacDonald had seldom done on his own. Still, old habits lingered. Each year the MacDonalds took an automobile trip, which invariably landed them in Nevada. They would fill their car with case after case of liquor, purchased for far less than the cost would have been in Washington State. The couple also enjoyed trips overseas, to Europe and Australia.
In the 1980s MacDonald remembered that his father always had fond memories of Elora. He decided to help the family’s old hometown. MacDonald began sending cash gifts annually, usually $10,000 each year. Rather than add the money to general revenue, Elora council placed the gifts in a special reserve. The fund soon topped the $150,000 mark.
In the early 1990s council made the decision to apply the money to a new town hall. It was a good time to build: construction of any kind had virtually stopped, and costs were as low as they would go. The MacDonald Fund provided a significant portion of the cost for the new town hall, which continues to serve as the town hall for Centre Wellington.
Jack and Mary MacDonald accepted an invitation to come to Elora for the official opening of the new building on July 1, 1994. He enjoyed visiting places in the area that had been important to his grandfather and great-grandfather, including the latter’s farm in Nichol Township. MacDonald was something of a fire engine fanatic. He was delighted to examine Elora’s recently-restored Bickle fire truck, and gladly accepted the Elora chief’s invitation to take the wheel for a spin around town. He later said that was the highlight of his trip, rather than his duties in opening the building that he had largely paid for.
Elora council named the street in front of the new building MacDonald Square in his honour. He graciously accepted the naming, though he had insisted that he did not want his name on anything. Today, he might be happy that many people think MacDonald Square was named for Canada’s first prime minister.
MacDonald continued to study and play the stock market after the death of his wife in 1999. The couple had moved from their modest house two years earlier to a retirement home. He was regarded as something of an eccentric, and he never bothered to deny the charge. He even boasted about it in later years. He cultivated the image of poverty because he intensely disliked being approached for donations to any charity.
Jack MacDonald remained alert to the end. In his later years he took an early morning walk most days, and invariably stopped at his broker’s office to buy and sell stocks. With his tall, thin figure and sure step, he appeared many years younger than his real age.
In July of 2013 he was briefly hospitalized after a fall, but recovered. He insisted that he be treated with generic drugs as an economy measure, and was happy for his quick recovery.
MacDonald did not trust the advice of anyone with regard to stocks, and he did his own research up to the day he died. He never needed reading glasses, and he called his broker only an hour before he died with some instructions for buying stocks.
Jack MacDonald died quietly on Sept. 13, 2013. At his request there was no funeral service. His last wish was that his remains be interred in the family plot in Elora. He left no direct descendants, but was survived by his two step-children and their families.
Many were astonished at his investment portfolio. When his will was read it became known that he had bequeathed some $187.6 million to three charities. The beneficiaries are his alma mater, the University of Washington Law School, to finance scholarships; the Seattle Children’s Hospital (where his mother had been a fundraiser); and the Salvation Army (which his father had admired for their selfless work with the impoverished and the working poor).
Gifts a surprise
The gifts came as a surprise for all the organizations.
“We didn’t know him, but he definitely knew us,” said Major Douglas Tollerud, divisional commander of the Salvation Army.
The amount bequeathed by the MacDonald Estate was the largest this year in Washington State, and the sixth largest in the United States so far in 2013.
The money he gave to Elora, as a portion of his estate, was not large. But for Elora it was a large amount. The building it financed is a solid one, and should function as a municipal structure for decades to come.
Residents should always remember the man who honoured the old family hometown with the largest gift ever received by the municipality. Even more so, MacDonald’s example of helping the public good without any thought of personal recognition is one that should be followed by all.
The Seattle Times remembered MacDonald with a feature story on his life and work on Nov. 28, and it was followed with an editorial in the Sunday edition on Dec. 1 acknowledging his generosity to local Seattle charities, both in his will and during his life.
Elora and Centre Wellington should join the people of Seattle in thanking Jack MacDonald for his generosity.
